Omega Point (46 page)

  I state this as a disclaimer.

  A second disclaimer is this: with Richards and Klein I have tried to avoid the dominance of "one big SF idea". In the best "big idea" SF – that written by Philip K Dick, or Adam Roberts – the big idea acts as a fulcrum upon which a parable about the present may be expertly articulated. In the worst, we have the world of today, tomorrow with added techno-zombies/brain implants/space travel or something similar, which is neither great writing nor good SF.

  I have nothing against "big idea" SF, especially if it's used to provide cutting insights into the human condition. Actually, even if it is techno-zombies I like it, provided it's done in an entertaining, fresh way.

  In Richard and Klein there is a big idea of sorts. To me,
Reality 36
and
Omega Point
are about mankind's collective parenthood of a range of new thinking beings. Maybe that's what they are about in your mind, maybe not. Every time someone reads a book it creates something unique, and that's just as true for the author as it is for a reader.

  But this is a theme, at least to my mind (and I can't stress that enough, writers are not entirely in control of their works, at least not consciously), it's not a real "what if there was a computer in the sky controlling me" kind of big idea.

  So, no real big idea. What I wanted was to sketch out a world that, if not accurate (hell, it's the future, we don't know yet), was at least plausible. The kind of world where, if someone asked me "What happened to Somalia?" or "What kind of food is popular?" or "How do your diffuse models of localised food production operate?" I'd at least be able to have a stab at answering. To create a living, breathing world for an adventure, it's as important to consider how people pay their taxes as it is to know how many settings a raygun has.

  To get to the future, one has to consider the present. All science fiction does this, no matter how bizarre. All SF is a slave to the time in which it is written. Mine is no different. Environmental collapse, global warming, the end of western power, new economics – all play a part in Richard and Klein's reality, as much as fancy technology. I suppose there are two sides to this, and two strands to each side. The first side is what I'll call socio-historical change (it's not history yet, it isn't history in the future, but one day, it will be), the other is technological change. The two strands to each of these are: the actuality of the new situation, and humanity's reaction to said new actuality; as a species, and individually. There is the interaction between all of these, which complicates the picture, somewhat.

  There are a few large scale actualities in my 22nd century: the ice sheet tip, the existence of artificial intelligence, global temperature rise, a past flu pandemic, the rise of localism, a past peak oil crisis, and the dominance of China as global superpower. On the small scale there are many, many more, most of which are not even alluded to in the books, but they are there in my head.

  Ideas for Richards and Klein's world come from all over the place, but there are two main sources. For the actualities large and small, much comes from today's popular science press (bbc.com, New Scientist and Space.com being the main contributors), random stories grabbed from all over the internet for the others. History informs me how these details might build into a coherent future, and how human reaction to the actualities of the future might go. I believe strongly that the only way to escape the cage of the present when writing science fiction is to look further back into the past. The roots of the present and the future both can be found in history. To base a vision of the future on one slice of time – our contemporary time – is to risk an unanchored, unbelievable construct. To believe that the culture of the writer will not change is the first and greatest of sins here.

  For example, take China. It seems clear to most of us now that China will be the next superpower. It already is, in several key regards. So it's a no brainer to have it be so powerful in Richards and Klein's future. But if you take into account that historically China has the oldest, continuously existent civilisation on the planet, that for eighteen of the past twenty centuries it has been the most prosperous political entity, that for a good proportion of those twenty centuries it has been the most technologically advanced… well, then its dominance seems more inevitable and less an accident of a passing phase of history (to whit, the outsourcing of much of the world's manufacturing to China). Contrarily, if you look at the history of Europe, the last three centuries
are
something of an historical anomaly, a passing phase. The conditions that ensured the dominance of European culture are coming to an end now. Likewise, the Second Great Migration alluded to in the books is drawn from the first one; if human beings can move en masse in response to some calamity once, why then not again? All this is fairly obvious, naturally.

  What isn't obvious is how all this will actually play out. If people were writing SF in the 15th century, very few of them would have predicted the age of European Empires. Only a rare combination of factors working together allowed this to happen at all, a key one being a weak, inward-looking China. No-one, and certainly not SF writers, can predict that kind of confluence of circumstance. Only one major development can alter the entire world. Like the electronics revolution means that we're all whizzing "amusing" pictures of cats at each other on our smart phones rather than exploring the solar system in rocket ships. That kind of thing.

  I'll leave you to decide which reality is preferable.

  I can't stress enough that all this is there as background for what I hope are entertaining science fiction adventure stories. That mass transit of manufactured goods is mostly a thing of the past in Richards day is far less important than you, the reader, having a good time, that you get drawn in to the story, and empathise with the characters. There are things in here that I doubt will happen. Flying cars, for one. But they are
fun
. With luck, these little details seem to fit together (unlike the bizarre road system in the film of Minority Report. It's always bothered me. It was tacked on to that future world only to provide a platform for a stunt sequence. There – got that off my chest). Have I predicted the future? No! But I have tried hard to create a plausible, believable reality. If I have been successful in that goal is for you to decide. Before you do, I'll let you into a secret. Much of the technology in Richards & Klein I reckon will be with us a lot sooner than the 22nd century. Why set it so far out? I'll almost certainly be dead by then, so won't have to suffer the embarrassment of having got it all totally wrong…

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An Angry Robot paperback original 2012

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Copyright © Guy Haley 2012

 

Guy Haley asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

 

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ISBN: 978 0 85766 148 7 

EBook ISBN: 978 0 85766 150 0

 

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This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.